Generative AI
Inside the December 2023 report
Working Capital
Inside the December 2023 report
FinTech
Inside the November 2023 report
• This year’s holiday season promises fierce competition between BNPL services and credit card installment plans as consumers are expected to gravitate more toward flexible financing options to cover their holiday purchases. Both BNPL providers and credit card issuers are already jostling for their favor — a contest that may well be determined by the role of enhanced features and perks.
• BNPL’s journey is now one that goes beyond mere transactional convenience. The changes underway in the industry will diversify the pathways to financial well-being and significantly impact consumers’ financial decisions. From credit enhancement to flexible financial management, BNPL’s unanticipated advantages are even capturing more of the attention — and loyalty — of a key consumer group.
• BNPL has proven its worth, prompting consumers to seek even more from the industry. Although shoppers are aware of the incentives credit card issuers offer to promote enrollment in their own installment plans, many consumers want to stick with BNPL services — if BNPL providers can deliver similar experiences. Can the industry rise to this challenge and broaden its appeal, or will it risk eroding its consumer base by failing to meet these demands?
Money Mobility
Inside the November 2023 report
Accounts Payable as a Service
Inside the November 2023 report
• Business-to-business (B2B) payments form the backbone of the modern economy. Compared to their peer-to-peer (P2P) or consumer-to-business (C2B) counterparts, however, they consistently come up short in terms of ease of use and security. This is due primarily to a reliance on paper payment methods.
• One of the most promising solutions to AP challenges is embedded finance, which integrates financial tools into existing AP software and workflows, eliminating the need for an outside bank or financial service provider to facilitate the transaction. Moreover, embedded finance solutions offer unparalleled seamlessness and security to AP teams.
• The benefits of implementing embedded payments are not just hypothetical. They have been thoroughly field-tested and have generated numerous success stories. Here, PYMNTS Intelligence highlights two notable examples of successful embedded payments partnerships.
B2B And Digital Payments
Inside the November 2023 report
Real-Time Payments
Inside the October 2023 report
• The rising popularity of A2A payments does not necessarily make them a perfect fit for all use cases. Both businesses and consumers have grown frustrated by many of A2A payments’ limitations, including transaction limits and susceptibility to fraud.
• While A2A payments have gained prominence worldwide, their adoption in the U.S. has lagged. Americans, it appears, prefer faster payment methods such as peer-to-peer (P2P) apps to the slower, costlier alternative.
• Real-time payments have become incredibly popular over the past several years as the pandemic pushed payments online and businesses and consumers clamored for faster transactions. Accelerating A2A payments into real-time transactions could boost this channel’s popularity.
digital-first banking
Inside the October 2023 report
• Social media algorithms have become pseudo financial advisers, steering the financially curious toward carefully curated narratives of financial education and opportunity. The influence of these narratives is as profound as their stated aim: democratizing access to financial literacy.
• The Wild West of online financial advice shows no signs of being tamed. In a financial info-scape where finfluencers and digital personalities propagate the full spectrum of financial strategies — from the genuine to the imaginary — the call for a regulatory sheriff is growing louder.
• Picture your FI. This is a place where calculations have ruled over creativity — until now. The consumer retail banking sector is breaking new ground, marrying long-established roles of financial stewardship with the dynamism of innovation. This evolution is not merely a timely shift. It is a much-welcomed stride toward personalized financial experiences guided by integrity.
Accounts Payable Payments as a Service
Inside the October 2023 report
• Paper checks sent through the mail continue to be the preferred payment method for businesses, with 62% of firms using this approach to pay for goods and services. However, the ongoing reliance on checks is causing numerous delays and complications for AP teams, not to mention inviting a host of potential security issues.
• For many businesses, ACH payments offer an appealing alternative to paper checks. In Q3 2022 alone, ACH payments represented more than $19 trillion in transactions. However, despite their remarkable transaction volume, ACH payments are plagued by fraud and inefficiency.
• Virtual cards are fast becoming a popular replacement for legacy B2B payment systems, offering ease of use and effective mitigation of fraud and other complications. Businesses that have implemented virtual cards have reported high levels of success.
Embedded Finance
Inside the October 2023 report
• In the last year, fraud has surged at an unsettling pace. Few have been spared. However, technology-savvy youth and the financially strapped have disproportionately borne the brunt. Even reputed stalwarts of banking have not been left unscathed. This is a wake-up call for the financial industry to strengthen its guard and innovate its defenses.
• As businesses continue to lean more heavily into their use of digital B2B channels, especially ones for payments, the recurring dual narrative of convenience and vulnerability highlight a key challenge of digital transformation: navigating innovation while mitigating potentially very costly risk.
• Digital fraud can be shockingly crafty. To counter this aptitude, FIs and banks are redrafting long-standing industry narratives about security. By adopting multifaceted strategies, banks are signaling commitment not only to counter fraud — but also to outpace it.
Credit Union
Inside the September 2023 report
Payments Orchestration
Inside the September 2023 report
• The inability to reroute a transaction can lead to a loss of revenue and business that, depending on the merchant and the gateway, can be substantial.
• Transaction retry is a basic must-have for any merchant wishing to capture all potential sales, as it offers an automated way to turn stalled transactions quickly and easily into revenue.
• From basic failover to customization based on cardholders’ preferred payment methods, dynamic routing ensures that merchants are always online and maximizing authorization rates while minimizing costs in any market.
Retail
Inside the August 2023 report
• For years, luxury brands have led the way in retail innovation, pioneering personalized shopping, targeted marketing and customer-centric experiences to drive conversions.
• Luxury retailers’ lower conversion rates compared to other forms of retail mean they must place a strong emphasis on cultivating repeat customers, who are far less expensive to acquire than new customers. Over the years, luxury brands have learned that the most effective way to accomplish this is by providing a personalized experience that remembers customers from prior visits.
• Recognizing the need to attract repeat customers is easy. Doing it is the hard part. For luxury retailers, targeted marketing and loyalty programs are critical tools for gaining repeat customers.
Hospitality
Inside the May 2023 report
Global Commerce
Inside the April 2023 report
Credit Card
Inside the April 2023 report
Real-Time Payments World Map
Inside the April 2023 report
Buy Now Pay Later
Inside the March 2023 report
B2B Payments Fraud
Inside the February 2023 report